Helen Yemm: last-minute Christmas gifts for gardeners

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As we approach the Christmas festivities knee-deep in a flutter of marketing hype, I feel sympathy for my son’s generation. Henry is an urban flat-dweller who works all hours and is not yet horticulturally tuned-in with a mud-encrusted mother (there must be hordes of them out there). However he will (I hope) feel the need to find an appropriate gem of generosity: “stuff” of some kind that is gardening-related. Fellow like-minded mud-encrusted mothers might like to alert their similarly challenged offspring to the following advisory bah-humbug. Garden plants (unless specifically requested with the full-Monty Latin name and a stockist list) do not necessarily hit the spot. Nor does another “indoor” potted hydrangea, poinsettia or cyclamen.

Also unwelcome are “practical” gizmos from China, brightly coloured and/or florally decorated (no finger-pointing: I neither wish to upset importers/manufacturers nor to cause an international incident). It is a sad fact that hardened old gardeners know what they like, and (predictably, alas) tend only to like what they know. But “boring” gift vouchers go down well and enable us to indulge ourselves (since we are often reluctant to replace “old faithfuls” or too penny-pinching to splash out on spur-of-the-moment plant exotica). We also crave new horticultural experiences – good reasons to get out of our gardens and in to others, maybe even dragging younger family members along, too.

The most universally useful voucher is from the Horticultural Trades Association. But look beyond: consider one from Harrod Horticultural (to gardening what Lakeland Plastics is to general around-the-house-iness). For dedicated organic gardeners, Green Gardener sells the last word in “stuff” – how fabulous, for example, would be a voucher to cover a whole year’s worth of Nemaslug. (Please, readers, stay with me, it does get a bit jollier.)

There is also a whole fruitful world out there of “friend”-ing and memberships that would provide a wealth of great horticultural “days out”: In London, an annual membership of the Chelsea Physic Garden gives free access to a haven of tranquillity and (incidentally) to a fabulous lunch café; the renovated London Garden Museum (opening with a big plant fair in April) will be equally enticing, I am sure. Kew Gardens, and other botanic gardens around the country – Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, Edinburgh and, of course, the National Botanic Garden of Wales, all have annual membership schemes.

Jakoti one-handed shears

Post script: Oh, all right then, there is an essential gadget that I must mention because I get so much grateful feedback from readers who have heeded my recommendation in the past. For indispensable one-handed shears, go to handshears.co.uk and you will find them. Thumbs up, too, for a pretty bird box from the Posh Shed Company.

Daffodils from the Scilly IslesCredit:
www.scillyflowers.co.uk

And, finally, when it is all over, fresh scented narcissi mailed from the Isles of Scilly as a “thank you” would go down a storm.